Now.
“Art was a dead Religion, Dada was born”
Was Dada Really Radical?
“Thoroughgoing or
extreme, especially in regards to change from accepted or traditional forms ”
Dada was a
literary and art movement that started in 1916. It translated to “hobby horse” in French, “yes, yes” in Russian and “a sign of foolish naiveté” in German. These definitions, with no corresponding relationship start to highlight the quirkiness of the movement, giving readers an insight into the weird and unusual world that was created. Richard Huelsenbeck, one of the notorious founders of Dada, described the movement with a “Child’s first sound expresses the primitiveness, the beginning at zero, the new in our art.” His notion of using the word ‘primitiveness’ associates with the basic, the earliest stage of man kind and human development, which highlights the fact that Dada did not stem from any other known movement in the art world at the ti me. Although baring similarities with Abstraction and Expressionism, two of its predecessors and having been followed by Cubism and Futurism, it was in itself a unique, new development that was created to shock viewers and leave a lasting impact.
Dada did not do art for art’s sake. It was not interested in creating a viewer experience that was aesthetically pleasing but rather, to attack a person’s psyche; to ensure they were directly affected by art in some way or other; made to feel something. It originates in the early 1900’s, during World War 1 as a political, albeit artistic protest regarding the treatment of society and the government’s part in allowing such atrocities. The group, who were loosely associated used a vast array of public forums and methods to denounce nationalism, rationalism and materialism, essentially anything they believed to have contributed to the breakout of war, which they thought was a senseless act. This built the foundation of the movement as they sought to go against what the rest of society believed was right. “We, who are non-artists, will create non-art -since art (and everything else in the world) has no meaning, anyway.” The movement was believed to be started by Hugo Ball in the Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich. He was a poet, interested in words and their ability to convey meaning and evoke feeling in people. This was a time when many Europeans, mainly of French and German decent were seeking refuge in Switzerland, a country that was neutral and vastly unaffected by the war.
Along with the likes of Tristan Tzara and Hans Arp, Ball created performances and they developed new forms of poetry, which featured collages of their own creation. At the same time, in New York, two artists, similar to those mentioned earlier in Zurich, started to formulate new ways of thinking. Their names, Marcel Duchamp and Francis Picabia, who believed that ideas should be the centerpiece of any artwork. The movement spread futher to France and Germany at the end of the war when the members, including Huelsenbeck who moved back to Berlin, returned to their native homes and continued practicing the new art form.
“Ideas Should replace the manual skills as a prime component of works of art ” Duchamp
It should be noted that the only thing Dada artists really had in common were their ideals. Dada essentially did not want to be seen or treated as a form of art but rather as a form of protest. The participants hated the idea that art in the past was treated as bourgeois and was created to be visually pleasing or ‘beautiful’. They felt it was meaningless and wanted to start creating works that highlighted the meaning as a main feature in what viewers were seeing.
Very early Dada art highlighted obscenities, vulgar humor and visual puns that intended to shock or outrage viewers. Duchamp for example, painted a moustache on a copy of the Mona Lisa, which accompanied by written obscenities, was originally portrayed as deformation of work, rather than an art piece itself. This unacceptability of what was produced by Dada artists however, acted as encouragement for the group to continue with enthusiasm the work that people did not understand completely. Anger and frustration are two features that can commonly be noticed in Dada work through deconstructed imagery, disjointed faces, hand made sculptures and the sheer overall feel of pain and anguish that was never apparent in art in previous centuries. The participants of the movement, although very different in their styles and ways of thinking, all shared the viewpoint that art of their time needed to move away from social norms, from what previous movements had done so blindly. Their art was to link to real life and real people, not just cater and benefit the privileged. It’s hard to give a definite answer to what Dada actually is as it stood for everything that was outside the norms of society at the time. The members that were part of the group refused to define it as a movement; Dada was essentially, NOT what it was associated with. The artist did not describe themselves as artists and the art they created was not art. The only rule in Dada was to
“Never follow any known rules ”
This is why with the introduction of Dada came a flourish of new materials and techniques that had never been used in the art world before. There was no predominant medium in the art form but things like collage for example, along with photomontage and ‘ready-mades’ were all developed during this period and these newly introduced forms of image creation meant that Dada was embracing the modern, developing world and in turn, it’s relevance led to it’s feature in magazines, films, advertising and new technologies. ‘Ready-mades’ were a method that was described as one of the most radical at the time and they were created by Duchamp, who’s impact on the Dada movement was vast and significant. The process of making art was completely vanquished and all that was left was the idea that he “made them with no intention other than to upload ideas.” This meant the main idea behind the pieces was to release art from it’s aesthetically pleasing form and rather, create ideas that implemented thinking beyond the obvious. His readymades employed a shock factor to its audience and were made to be something that at the time, no one had seen before. Due to this reason, many people didn’t understand the art of Dada and therefore dismissed it as art, not realizing that was the point behind the work.
Hanah Hoch, a female German Dada artist of the time was
recently featured in an exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery. This
included her life’s work from the very start to the end, of which was
predominantly
collages.
The progression from the initial simplicity to the later detailing in her work and the use of newspapers and
magazines
as
inspiration
for her pieces, all highlight the
progression of the movement from one artist’s perspective. Her work
evidently gets more controversial
and complex, later spanning into the Surrealist movement, where
she works with more abstract shapes and forms.
People often question whether
Dada was radical or not and in
essence, yes, it was. The group wrote
their
own
manifesto
describing their vision and this in
itself, breaking from regular ideals, moved away from the mainstream. It should be noted that it was only when Dada finally became acceptable that the movement deteriorated around 1923 because
it was no longer breaking the boundaries of society.
Even now Dada has changed
the way we see the world today. Especially in art, People like Sarah
Lucas and the Chapman brothers, contemporary modern day artists, although not considered Dada
artists, all bare similarities to the Dadaist movement in their work.
room,
Sarah Lucas a feminist, is a great example as her work predominantly features a lot of nude imagery, of which parts of the body are displaced and a strong sexual undertone is presented between males and females. She plays on the idea of getting a reaction; impacting a viewer emotionally and creating something that will leave an impression. The difference between modern day society and the work of Dadaists at the time however, is that a 21st century audience is commonly subject to social commentaries and a play of sexuality as a normal occurrence, unlike in the 1900’s, where a more conservative audience was catered to. This begs the question of whether her work has the same effect on people now as it did at the time when Dada was introduced but in all, it highlights the impact Dadaists had on creating a new free and outrageous form of expression that still exists today.
The Chapman Brothers Jake and Dinos, who recently exhibited ‘Come & See’ at the Serpentine Gallery in Kensington Gardens, are another example of modern day artists influenced by the Dadaist movement. Much like Sarah Lucas, they aim to shock their audience in an attempt to receive a reaction. However, it should be noted they displayed a more obvious deeper meaning to their work. This includes social commentaries, much like Dadaists were doing at the time. Their media ranged from drawing to painting to sculpture, film and printing.
While highlighting the idea they are anti-establishment, they protest the ideas of capitalism, religion, popular culture and politics in their work. Examples include large dioramas of popular culture icons including Ronald McDonald being hung or sacrificed on a crucifix, surrounded by Nazi’s both dead, alive and as skeletons. The audience is able to relate through the imagery and symbolism on a personal level, as McDonalds is one of the most popular fast food chains in the world. People don’t often realize the impact the companies advertising may have on them psychologically, i.e. the immediate recognition of the golden arches. Often portrayed as comfort, the portrayal of the company’s mascot in such a negative light immediately evokes feeling in the viewer, whether this be confusion or laughter. Another notable feature of the exhibition are large human size sculptures of figures resembling the Ku Klux Klan with smiley face badges, one of the most disgraced groups in history. The Chapman brothers take a horrific event from history, although the ‘KKK’ do still exist in certain parts of America and present it to modern day society in a humorous way. This gives the audience different viewpoint on the matter, they would never have expected to see.
Personally, having researched the movement via books, online articles, looking into artists and visiting exhibitions, the work I have produced has bore an obvious influence to that of the Dada style. Before writing my Design Manifesto, I looked into both the Manifesto of Futurism and Dada Manifesto to gain an understanding of what a manifesto consisted of and how they portrayed there idea’s and notions. My Manifesto content is aimed at helping me keep on track with I am presently doing but also giving pointers on how I can better myself as a designer as I move into my final year. When designing the aesthetics for my manifesto I was drawn to Raoul Hausmann use on text and paragraph layout on page, which seems disjointed and random, but when the whole composition is taken into aspect, it seems to be balance and compliment its self. The idea that used for the Un Chien Andalou poster, was recreating the first scene where the cloud, symbolizes the eye being cut by the razor. Then from the pupil of the eye expands out the black and white striped pattern that is found through out the movie, on items such as the wooden box. Each striped box representing a scene of the movie. Boxes were distorted to create a meandering path, which represents the of un-linear, cut up storyline of the movie.
Finally for the window, room, furniture brief my research lead to Kurt Schwitters where inspiration was found in his Merv barn structure. An organic piece that is consistently growing as he adds new pieces to it. The goal was to create a space that could be viewed as a room (the inside of the box), window that you could look into the structure (the wooden frame) and the whole box itself acting as a piece on furniture. Overall, the Dada movement was a complicated yet controversial movement that stood mainly to leave a lasting impression on its audience. It was a movement that sought to break the boundaries of what was acceptable in society and only when it was no longer shocking, did in eventually deteriorate, as it no longer adhered to the values of the style. Artists worked in a vast array of mediums, introducing new materials and techniques into the art world and the work of the time had a lasting impact on the work that is still produced now by contemporary artists, as discussed throughout this essay.
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